Fashion Statement

     Today Cammie and I were headed to the store after a make-up gymnastics class to spend some wonderful Kohl's cash (don't you just love how they sucker you in with that stuff....I always, ALWAYS spend more than the amount I have to spend "free").  As usual I was making decisions about what I wanted to spend the money on and whether or not I wanted to get the extra stuff I managed to accumulate in my cart. :)  I decided to look at the shoes in Cammie's size before leaving, as fall is around the corner and I wanted to see if they had anything new come in.  Little Miss C was starting to get tired and requested to get out of the cart and I let her to avoid a two-year old tantrum in the middle of the store (mistake #1 :). She immediately finds a pair of shoes that light up and requests to put them on.  In an effort to appease her I found her size and let her try them on.  She immediately falls in love, begins to parade through the shoe aisle and refuses to take them off.  Needless to say, she pulled one over on me, suckered me in and of course got a new pair of shoes.  Although she does love them, I never thought she would have such a strong opinion at such a little age!

She wouldn't even take them off to change out of her leotard or for her nap...we couldn't even get the stickers off the bottom lol :)

MIA

     As usual I am behind on blogging...story of my life. :) I swear one of these days I will do something early or at least on time. :)  I have great intentions, but going back to work has done a whirlwind in our house!  Early morning runs, returning to work, soaking up every last minute of the summer sunshine and nice weather with my Cammie-bear and two +30 classes make it just a little hard to stay ahead of or even on top of anything.  I am slowly going to update the blog from vacation on until I get caught up again. :) Thank goodness for my camera....otherwise I'd forget everything. :)  Keep checking back....I promise to get it together soon!

Two, two Camryn is TWO!?!?!?

     How in the world have two years flashed before my eyes so quickly?  As blessed as I am to have a healthy, happy and beautiful baby girl....I can't help but get a little emotional as I type this post.  I never thought two years old would get here so quickly.  It seems like we were just leaving the hospital and bringing our beautiful little girl home for the first time.  Camryn has most definitely changed our lives for the better and made every single day more complete.  I never thought I could ever love someone or something as much as I love that little girl! She puts the biggest smile on my face and completely fills my heart with joy and happiness.  Our world is so complete because of this amazing little girl and her giant personality!

At two Camryn:

• is an incredible 36 1/2 inches tall (not even on the growth chart....she's a monster!)
• weighs 31(ish) lbs.  (the big girl scale is so intriguing...we have a very hard time standing still :) (85-90th percentile)
• continues to have light blue eyes and white blonde hair
• wears 2t and 3t size clothes (most 2t stuff fits in the waist, but is too short in the length :/)
• wears a size 7 shoe
• is strong-minded, strong-willed and knows exactly what she wants (and usually gets exactly what she wants...within reason :)
• enjoys playing babies, Legos (or any type of blocks), bubbles, outside and coloring most
• is very into pushing anything...doll strollers, real strollers, her grocery cart, real carts in stores, the broom and even vacuum 
• will ask to go shopping (a girl after her momma's heart :) and usually requests to go to Target
• LOVES her dogs (Zoey and "Brobi")...her world revolves around these four-legged creatures
• is talking SO much...she repeats everything and often says 2-4 word phrases and almost complete sentences...some of her trademark phrases or "Camrynisms" as we call them are...
• "I want taco" (even though she doesn't even eat tacos, just the tortillas :)
• "Where __________ is? (Where Zoey is? Where daddy is? etc.)
• "Gooooo Reds!"
• "Mamryn (as she calls herself) do it"
• I want "my-meam" (ice cream)
• "Hi, Eh-yee" (Hi Ellie)
• "Dag Nabbit!"
• "Excuse me _________"
• loves to sing songs, including The Wheels on the Bus, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Special Agent Oso theme song, Itsy, Bitsy Spider, and Bieber of course :) (honestly she will sing along with anything!)
• knows all of her colors: orange, pink, purple, red, blue, green, yellow, white, black and brown
• can count 1, 2, 3
• watches Special Agent Oso, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and has started showing an interest in Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I think she watches that with Aubrey at Miss Patty's)
• continues to love reading...her favorite books include Are You a Cow?, Hippos Go Berserk, Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type, Chicka Chicka ABC and The Wheels on the Bus
• is our absolute world!  Love that little girl more than words can say!!!

Sneaking a cupcake before the big party :) That's our girl!!!

Bieber Fever

     I never thought I would be writing a post that my almost two year old has developed a love for the one and only...Justin Bieber!?!?  I am not sure where this love came from, but feel confident it definitely may have started with her "Aunt" Giggi (Chrissie).  Chrissie does love J.B. and has passed on her excitement and enthusiasm to C.  She gets so excited when she hears the beginning of the "Boyfriend" song and immediately starts singing and dancing.  She also has become quite demanding in the car, requesting Bieber be played over and over (and over and over again...we sometimes listen to it 5 or 6 times in a row :).  I love watching her bounce up and down, tap her foot to the beat or listen to that cute little voice sing the words and even change her pitch during the song.  So stinkin' cute!  Maybe one day she will figure out Bieber is the singer of the song....not it's name :)    

Nana's New Car

Watch Out!!! Nana got a new car!! Nana has dreamed of owning a Mustang convertible since before college.  She finally treated herself and demonstrated how hard work WILL pay off!  Cam LOVES Nana's new car and riding around with the top down.  She often tries to tell me about the adventures she and Nana take in "Nana's Car" during the day. :) So excited for Nana....she deserves it!!!

Front view :)

First Haircut

     Today Cammie got her first haircut!!! If you saw her hair you would never believe that her white-blonde locks were ready for a trim, but her poor bangs were down in her eyes.  I probably could have trimmed it myself, but knew our long-time hairstylist would love the opportunity to put Cammie in her chair. :)  Cammie confidently climbed in the chair and sat right in the seat like a big girl.  She put the cape around her and sat pretty still considering she is almost a two-year old. :)  Sheri trimmed her bangs and even the back a little to help with those baby fine tangles that create quite the tangles on a daily basis.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives, as Sheri refused to accept any money for her haircut and even gathered all the tiny locks for me to save forever. :) C sure is getting to be such a big girl!

So big! :)

Doing such a good job of sitting still...

Just about finished...now if Sheri could just help us control that mess we would be in good shape!

"Wing, Wing"

Our little munchkin LOVES to swing!  She swings at the park with both grandma and Nana when she visits during the week and was lucky enough to have temporary swings in her backyard for most of the summer until the old owners of our house were ready to put their swing set up at the house they are building.  Fortunately, Cammie was not home the day the swing set left our house.  I knew I couldn't let her be home...she would have been devastated. When she finally ventured to the backyard a day or two later she looked at the empty grass and asked to "wing" over and over with such a sad face it broke my heart.  I knew Chris and I had to do something.  I couldn't bear to see that face each day. :(  We had been discussing what we were going to do once the swing set was gone for a large part of the summer.  We both decided we would wait for the swing set at Sam's Club to go on sale and buy it once did.  That plan didn't last long....we barely made it 2 weeks. :)   Chris and I priced swing sets online for about a week, but decided to go with the one at Sam's.  I knew many people who had bought swing sets at Sam's and had relatively positive things to say about them.  We called a few days in a row to check the price then decided to just bite the bullet and buy it.  Part of our decision to buy was that her birthday was quickly approaching and I knew I wanted to have a party as an excuse to invite people over to see our house (people had been asking me all summer :/).  Another reason we decided to buy that day was my dad volunteered to spend his only Saturday of the month off and help put it together over the upcoming weekend.  Finally, the weather was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous....in the 80's and you don't get any better than that in the middle of August.  Chris, Dad and Nick ("Dick" as Cammie calls him) worked all day Saturday and half of Sunday to get it together.  We are so fortunate to have such awesome people in our lives!  Right as they finished C woke up from a nap and headed outside to see the finished product.  Although she did not show her true excitement (it takes her a while to actually wake up most days) she is in love with her new toy!  The only down side: Brohdi can't climb up this one and sit with her in the house. :)  Thank you to 3 of my favorite guys! You are the best!

Directing Pop where to take the swing set...his truck of course :)

So excited for what's in those boxes :)

The finished product :)  Thank you Daddy, Pop and Dick!

   

Back to School

     Going back to school is always so hard as I struggle to admit that summer is coming to an end.  It seems like going back to school gets harder each year as Cammie gets a little older and we are able to interact with her more and more.  This school year was no different with the exception that it seemed to sneak up even quicker with as busy as the summer was.  Don't get me wrong....I soaked up the summer sunshine and days away from work as much as I could with my little sun princess.  We played outside on the swing set, blew bubbles, went swimming and even managed to grab a few nap snuggles together every once in a while. :)
     Unfortunately, a majority of my summer days were dedicated to online classes and a curriculum project I applied for that would pay to take my Cammie to Disney for the first time.  Chris and I were also busy slowly trying to get everything (well as much as we could) painted, hung or put away in the new house. I feel like I blinked my eyes and summer was gone!  
     I always struggle with the beginning of the school year.  There is never enough hours in the day to get even half of the items on your to-do list accomplished.  I always feel behind at work, school and home at the beginning of the year.  I struggle to find time to work-out (which I need even more on school days).  I never can seem to find even a few minutes to spend with Chris and pretend I am his wife, in addition to being mom and second grade teacher.  Most of all, I struggle with the amount of time I am away from Cam, compared to the time I was used to spending with her on a summer day.  To make things even more complicated Cammie has to go to occasionally go to a baby-sitter this school year.  My dad decided to head back to work in early June so I lost my full-time babysitter and C lost her Pop who kept her scheduled and in line. :)  Although I am very excited for him to get back to something he missed, C and I will miss him more than we can put into words.  My mom will continue to watch C on her days off and Chris' mom will continue to keep her each Tuesday, but for the remainder of days each month C will have to stay with a babysitter.  Thankfully we have found an amazing sitter who I know will take the best care of C while she is there.  Miss Patty, whom C knows from the Y will take care of her when family is not able to.  Miss Patty also has a 2 1/2 year she takes care of daily, which will give C a playmate when she is there.  I know this will be a great opportunity for Cammie, especially as we think about enrolling her in preschool next year, but it's just hard to make adjustments when you are used to things being just so.  Crossing my fingers for a successful start and a less stressful school year than the one before....anything to make that next break or those summer days come a little faster... :)

Girl's Weeknd

      This weekend the boys headed to Cincinnati for a weekend filled with golf, while the girls stayed at home and had a packed, but very fun and interesting time together. :)  Friday night Cammie was invited to Kaidyn's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  This was Camryn's first time there and she had so much fun!  Little Miss K. is so sweet and so kind to all her friends, including the younger ones like Cammie. :) C loved riding the rides, playing Skee Ball and following her friends around.  She enjoyed pizza, a cupcake and even the birthday show with Chuck E. Cheese.  I was so impressed that he didn't scare her (he is kind of scary up close :) and she seemed to enjoy the giant version.  With Disney in our future I just don't want her to be scared of the big characters. :)  After the birthday party we picked up the dogs from mom's house before they headed out with friends and were on our way home.  Chrissie, Ellie and Penny met us at our house where we enjoyed pizza and some girl time as we played, snuggled, watched t.v. and slept downstairs. (With Friday being our first teacher day...the older girls were beat :)

My cutie pie :)

      Saturday we were up early and ready for a day of shopping!!!  Chrissie, Tammy (Chrissie's mom), Nana, Pop, Cammie and I had plans to head to the outlets.  Chrissie had 30% off at Gap and Banana Republic and we sure are not ones to let a coupon go to waste. :) Unfortunately, Nana had been battling some sinus yuckies and decided not to go at the last minute.  Pop stayed home to take care of Nana, so the girls went on their way (while Ellie split her time and stayed with Mamaw and Pop...2 kids at the outlet mall was a bit much the first time, so we tried our luck with just one :).  We had a great time at the outlets, found a few good deals and C even wormed her way into a few rides. :)  

Just another reason to love the outlets :)

Best way to shop.....she was OUT! :)
(Such a lady :)

     We rushed home to get Ellie and were ready to settle down for a relaxing evening when we discovered C locked us out of the house! :(  For the first time ever I followed my mom's advice...locking the front door, putting the garage door down, doing all the things to keep us girls safe while the boys were gone.  Chrissie, Ellie, Camryn, all 3 dogs and I had headed out to the backyard to enjoy a few minutes outdoors before it got dark.  Chrissie went to open the door so she could feed Ellie and discovered it was locked.  Immediately she asked me if I locked the door and then asked my little monster who smiled and replied with "mmm-hmmm".  We had no phones, no car or house keys...nothing.  I ran next door to our amazing neighbors, Robin and Billy to use their phone to call my dad.  Billy ran over and tried opening the locked door with his credit card but had no luck. :( Ellie is now SCREAMING...she is starving and we can't get in.  My mom and dad accidentally gave us our house key back the week before when returning car keys so they had no way to get in either.  Thank goodness my dad is handy.  He came to our house as fast as possible, tools in hand and was able to get the door opened pretty quick.  (Thank goodness for dads...what we would do without them??? I feel like my dad has saved me a handful of times...he is the best! :) After Ellie finally ate, we had a heart-to-heart with Camryn about not locking doors and were able to calm down we finally settled in and called it a night.
          Sunday we ran a few errands, planned for our first day of school and tried to start Cammie's yarn-wrapped letters craft (way more involved than what I anticipated) before Chrissie, Ellie and Penny packed up and headed home.  I can honestly say their golf weekend has turned into one of my favorite weekends of the year!  It just keeps getting better each year!  Many people think we are crazy to keep 2 kids and all 3 dogs under one roof, but we absolutely LOVE it! :)

Beach Bummin'

"Let's go to the beach, beach. Let's go get a wave."

We have been in Florida for the past week and have had a blast!  Cammie, Chris and I were invited to go to Florida with our next door neighbors and good friends, the Yanez crew.  We traveled 14 1/2 hours to Indian Shores Beach in Florida.  Surprisingly, Cammie did really well during the long drive.  She didn't sleep as much as I thought, but watched a little Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins to help ease the long drive.  She also munched on marshmallows and cheese crackers, while staring out the window and talking to mom and dad.  When we finally arrived we were so excited to see and show her the beach.  Danielle and I headed to the store for a few necessary items (milk, bread, ya know the necessities) while Chris and Joe took the girls to see the beach (Florida as the older girls called it :) for the first time.  Cammie absolutely HATED it! :/  She screamed, cried and demanded to be held the entire time.  The next consecutive days of our vacation didn't get much better.  She would tolerate it as long as she was being held or sitting on someone's lap.  If any part of her body touched the sand or got dirty she went crazy, starting to yell and cry. :(  So much for enjoying the beach this year. :/  By Thursday she started feeling a little better about the beach and would at least tolerate it in small doses as long as she didn't have to touch the sand. (Just as a mom memory...we had to lay a towel down for her to stand on and play with her sand toys on the beach.  She didn't play with sand of course..only the water :). Although the weather was a little iffy (more rain than usual) and Cammie's hatred of the sand we still had a great time!  We are so thankful our friends invited us to come along and share their vacation with them!  Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

1.  Dance Parties:  The girls loved taking a break and dancing at any given point during the vacation.  It was so, so, so cute to watch the three of them and their dancing abilities! :)

2.  Swimming in the Pool: Since Cammie wasn't a beach fan we spent ALOT of time at the pool.  Our little water bug loved "simming" with her float on and friends.  She learned to kick her feet, lay back and float like a starfish and started getting a little more comfortable jumping in the water.  The pool was definitely her spot (a little like her momma :)  Here are just a few of the MANY pictures we took of our little water bug.

Big Stuff :)

"Again, again"
(or in Cammie's words "gin, gin" with a hard g sound :) 

Starfish!

Playing her favorite game (cups) with her new friend Christopher

kick, kick, kick :)

3.  Playing in the Rain:  After dinner one night we headed to get ice cream about 1/2 a mile from our condo.  We knew rain chances were not in our favor, but we decided to chance it and tried to beat the rain.  We headed out with 3 strollers for some yummy dessert, where we unfortunately of course did not beat it. :(  The girls were having too much fun playing in the rain, while we were eating our ice cream so we decided to head back even though we were on foot and it was raining pretty good.  Cammie loved playing with the water coming out of the down spout and thought mommy running with the stroller back to our place was too funny. :) Silly girl!

4.  Baseball Game:  Tuesday night we headed to the baseball stadium to watch the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  Although none of us are big Devil Rays fans, there was no way Chris would allow us to be so close to a Major League Baseball stadium and not attend.  Gotta love that baseball heart :)  I was actually happily surprised at how well Cammie did at the baseball game.  Our seats were VERY high up, but she really seemed to like the game, songs, chants....everything that goes along with a baseball game.  It also helped our cause that they had her favorite snack...popcorn :)  Here are a few pictures of the girls at the game.

Taking a break from our seats to let some little legs run :)
Strike a pose!

Sharing C's favorite snack :)
(Love that her mouth is packed full of popcorn :)

5.  The Beach:  Even though Cammie hated the beach...we did manage to snap a few photos of our attempts to acclimate her to the sand and salt water.  Some days were better than others, but our strong-minded girl made up her mind early that she didn't like it and had no plans of spending time there....even if some of her bestest buddies tried to show her how wonderful it could be.  Maybe next year :(

A face still trying to figure out whether to smile or cry :)

Not moving off mom's lap....sat there for about 15 minutes

Playing with the girls, moving water from bucket to bucket...while standing on a towel

Feeling a little better....but quickly changed our mind and went inside for a nap :)

6.  And a few last random, but fun pictures of our trip! These girls had a great time!

Taking it all in :) First glimpse of the pool and beach

All greased up and ready for the sun! Love her hair :)

Matching ruffle butts :)

Snuggling together with a good book (Cam's favorite...Click Clack Moo :)

Cammie and Mommy

Riley....she was definitely our swimmer!

C getting kisses from Gram :)  It was so sweet the way she just warmed right up to her :)

Deep in thought....she loved those darn cups!

Stingrays!  They were so close!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE little Luci!

I think she's got enough sunscreen for the day lol :)
Gotta love that independence :)

Love this munchkin!

Best Buddies :)

Silly face :)

Cheese!!!

Pool Time

Cammie has been soaking up the sun and loving some pool time this summer. She has been quite the water bug and has been swimming anywhere and everywhere including The Aquatic Center with "Mammy," Chrissie's clubhouse pool, Grandma's house, Riley and Luci's Gram's house and small pools in ours or the neighbor's backyard.  Recently, we filled up her little pool at home and she and Zoey had so much fun together!  

I could listen to her belly laugh forever....love the memories we are making this summer!

Updated...Finally!

I think I FINALLY have the blog completely updated.  This summer has just been too busy to keep the blog as up to date as I would have liked.  :/ I always seem to have an excuse, but at the same time always seem to get it done sooner or later. :)  Thanks to my handy blog list that I continued to add to each week, we are finally completely updated all the way back to April. :) Happy Reading!

Monkeys

Cammie has found a love for these pajamas this summer....

Yes...we even brought "the monkeys" to the beach. :)

She wears them EVERYWHERE and every.single.time.they.are.clean!!! I guess Chris and I are so shocked because she is so hot-natured, even when she sleeps that this new found love for footed pajamas in the dead middle of summer seems unexplainable. :)  She will throw a fit when she is wearing them when you tell her it is time to get dressed.  She yells, "No, monkeys, monkeys" to tell you she does NOT to take them off.  I guess that's the mind of a two year old. :)

Bounce Time

Although Camryn goes to SIGS weekly for gymnastics, we had never tried the open bounce time they offer during the day.  This summer has been so busy that making it there once a week has been a big enough commitment for us.  Friday morning we were planning to have a pool day to wear the kiddos out before making the long drive we had ahead of us to Florida the next day.  After watching the weather a few days before, I realized that we may not have great weather for a pool day and decided to have a second plan just in case.  As much as C loves gymnastics I knew she would love Bounce Time.  Her friends Riley and Luci went too and she had so much fun!  She loved the inflatables, climbing over, under, up and down all of the obstacles they offered.  She also loved the freedom to jump (or run) down the trampoline without having to wait her turn or follow specific directions.  Running around with her friends, swinging on the bars and playing in the cheese pit were probably her favorite activities of the day.  She loved it so much I am a little worried about her ability to follow directions when we return to gymnastics class next week.... :)

Taking it all in

1..2..3..GO!!

Look how big I am! :) (We have the start to a full ponytail, but it's hard to see in this picture and it fell out almost immediately :)

Can't get over how much strength she has gained from gymnastics ...she can swing on her own and pull her feet almost to the top of the bars!

Whoa!!! (In her words :)

Pushing Luci in the barrel

Oops! She fell out :)

Being silly :)

Ultimate bliss of a two year old!

Love Luci's face....shows how much she loved it! :)